Conventional development of the color for painted products, such as buildings, appliances, and the like occurs in a multi-step process involving numerous people. By way of example, the schematic shown in FIG. 1 depicts the multi-step process typically involved when an architect or designer selects the color for painted panels of a building. The designer identifies a color that the designer would like to have produced on building panels. The color may be shown on a sample article, such as a paint chip or a colored paper from a catalog or magazine. The designer takes the color sample to a panel producer and indicates that the building panels are to receive a paint having the color selected by the designer. The panel producer then contacts a paint producer for production of a paint that matches the color sample provided by the designer. The paint producer produces a sample of paint and provides it to the panel producer who then coats a sample panel with the sample paint and provides the sample painted panel to the designer. The designer reviews the sample of the painted panel. Frequently, the color of the painted panel sample does not meet with the color criteria of the designer and the process of creating another paint sample and painted panel with that paint sample must be repeated. This process of creating physical samples for review by the designer is often repeated many times over a period of weeks or even months until an acceptable color for the paint is achieved. Eventually, an acceptable paint color is produced by the paint producer and applied to a sample panel and accepted by the designer. Significant production time is lost between the point when the designer first identifies a color and communicates it to a panel producer and the point when the panels are ready for coating with the selected final paint composition. Both the panel producer and paint producer have expended significant time and effort with associated costs in producing the samples for approval by the designer.
A similar color development process occurs in the production of other colored articles, such as textiles, that are not coated with a paint yet are colored by other techniques, such as dyeing or pigmentation. However, articles bearing coating compositions are distinct from the colored articles that incorporate a color directly into the article (e.g., dyed textiles or extruded pigmented plastics) in that the coating compositions (frequently referred to herein as paint) are marketable alone or in combination with articles (e.g., painted building panels). Hence, a need remains for incorporating a digital color development system into a computer aided design system for production and design of painted articles.